A choral partnership

Two groups share services

The Cincinnati May Festival and the Vocal Arts Ensemble are forming a new partnership to share back-office services. The two choral organizations will continue to operate with separate boards, budgets and artistic leadership.

The two groups began meeting two years ago to explore ways to solve challenges in the current economic climate improve efficiency, increase audiences for choral music and better promote each organization. From the start, said John Earls, Vocal Arts Ensemble board president, "everyone involved was focused on our audiences - how we could improve both organizations financially and artistically."

The agreement is similar to a shared service agreement between the May Festival and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which May Festival executive director Steven Sunderman says has saved the choral festival nearly $500,000 annually.

"It is a smart, cost-effective way for the May Festival to capitalize on the enormous expertise the CSO brings to the partnership," he said.

Partnerships and mergers are becoming more prominent among arts groups nationwide. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, a joint venture between the Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera and Dayton Ballet, is currently in its first season.

Local early music festival takes off

A new early music festival will introduce events in venues across the city, from Christ Church Cathedral, Downtown, to Northside Tavern. Annalisa Pappano, founder of Catacoustic Consort, says she thought this would be an ideal time for a festival because it's a growing movement.

The festival launched last Friday in a concert with recorder virtuoso Matthias Maute. Coming up next is a recital of music from the French courts of Louis XIII and Louis XIV performed by Mary Henderson Stucky, professor of voice at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and her husband Rod Stucky, professor of guitar and lute, at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Hyde Park (3 p.m. Feb. 10).

Another highlight, 8 p.m. Feb. 10, will be an early-music sampler in Northside Tavern. Visit www.catacoustic.com or call 513-772-3242.

Cedric Cox in Chicago exhibition

Cincinnati painter-educator-musician Cedric Michael Cox is one of the Enquirer's 10 to watch in 2013. One place you can see his work is Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, in the Black Creativity Exhibition through Feb. 24.

Cox is one of more than 100 artists featured. He describes his painting as "representational abstraction." He takes forms from his environment, stylizes or simplifies them and recombines them in ways that recall their sources but are not strictly realistic.

The 1999 graduate of UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning teaches at Kennedy Heights Arts Center and works with Castle Connections, an after-school program in Mount Washington.

Writing an opera in 12 hours

Evan Mack was one of five composers nationwide to be chosen for Atlanta Opera's 24-Hour Project last weekend. The project teams up composers and librettists, who pen an opera in 12 hours on a common theme. The result was voted upon by a live and online audience.

Mack's 10-minute comic opera, "Beach and Moan," is about a woman looking for peace and quiet, only to be confronted by two men, each vying for her attention. His opera was picked as audience favorite.

"The big goal was to promote the creation of new opera. A large cash prize would have made the experience more tense and less enjoyable," said Mack, who has written two full-scale operas since graduating from CCM. Mack's first opera, "Angel of the Amazon," is a retelling of the story of the murder of Dayton native Sister Dorothy Stang in the Amazon jungle. The opera, to his own libretto, had its first public reading in Cincinnati in 2007. Opera News reviewed its Off-Broadway run as "inventive, edgy...and a worthwhile contemporary opera." The opera was released on CD by Albany Records.

His second opera, "The Secret of Luca," with librettist Joshua McGuire and pianist and opera coach Jennifer Quammen McGuire, premiered in November with a cast of singers from CCM.

Covington has new art director

Cate Yellig is the City of Covington's Art Director after seven years at the Phyllis Weston Gallery. Yellig will represent arts and culture for Covington with an emphasis on economic development. She will also oversee oversee programming of the Artisan Enterprise Center (AEC), the city's gallery and community meeting space.

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A choral partnership

The Cincinnati May Festival and the Vocal Arts Ensemble are forming a new partnership to share back-office services.